Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates

Chapter 3: The Fourth Level of Xiantian

“Blood Puti?” Tianling-er suddenly exclaimed.

Thirteen strawberry like fruits grew on the vines. Each fruit gave a red glow, just like to showcase the alluring taste of them.

Zhong Shan knew from early on that there existed spirit fruits in the world. Back at the Kaiyang School, inside the Flaming Fruit Cave Paradise that he discovered, there was also a spirit fruit that was obviously much more powerful than the thirteen here.

“Blood Puti?” Zhong Shan asked frowning.

“Zhong Shan, Zhong Shan, put me down. These are Blood Puti. As soon as I eat some Blood Puti, my wound should heal. Besides, it contains a large amount of fire energy. Maybe, maybe I can even break into the tenth level of Xiantian.” Tianling-er excitedly called out.

Zhong Shan’s eyes brightened up after hearing what she had said. Blood Puti?

He slowing released his arms and carefully set Tianling-er down from his back.

When her feet touched the ground, Tianling-er’s excitement suddenly turned hollow with no reason.

She frowned and quickly shook her head. What was wrong with her?

“You can eat Blood Puti just like this?” Zhong Shan asked.

“Sure. You can eat one too. However you’re only at the third level of Xiantian, it may hurt a lot after you eat it but it should help you. And don’t eat more than one.” Tianling-er immediately said.

“Hurt?” Zhong Shan looked at her strangely.

“That’s to say, the energy is too powerful for you and it’ll hurt your body. I heard from my dad that Blood Puti isn’t a particularly good spirit fruit, but it only grows in a special place, in volcanic craters. But not all volcanic craters have it. I’m not quite clear the reasons for that.  There are thirteen of them here. According to my dad, I only need to eat eight to reach the tenth level. In addition, it can also has restorative properties. Isn’t that just great?” Tianling-er said.

“Is there any side effects? Will it hinder my training later on?” Zhong Shan asked in all seriousness.

“Uh, not to you and me.” Tianling-er thought for a bit and said.

“Why?” Zhong Shan puzzled.

“Because the Blood Puti is a Yang type spirit fruit. You practice the Dayang Shengong so there’s no problem for you. I practice Lihuo[1] Shengong and it won’t be a problem for me either.” Tianling-er said.

“En. I will stand guard for you. You try it.” Zhong Shan said.

“No.” Tianling-er answered.

“Uh?” Zhong Shan frowned.

Tianlian-er looked at Zhong Shan with a flash of determination in her eyes. “This time you eat first. I’ll stand guard for you.”

Seeing the resolute look on Tianling-er’s face, Zhong Shan smiled lightly and said, “Alright.”

Zhong Shan carefully picked one Blood Puti as Tianling-er had told him.

The temperature of the Blood Puti was as hot as boiling water. Having reached the third level of Xiantian, Zhong Shan wasn’t afraid of the heat and pulled it off the vine.

“Pa”

He had picked the Blood Puti off.  

“Ci ci ci ci”

The vine that was connected to the Blood Puti withered and dried out in the blink of an eye. The yellow, shrivelled vine quickly fell down.

“Once the Blood Puti is picked, the vine is useless.” Tianling-er explained.

Zhong Shan nodded and sat down cross legged against the cave wall. He swallowed the Blood Puti in his hand in one swift motion.

The Blood Puti went into his stomach.

Once it was inside, it transformed into a wave of intense heat and seemed to bake Zhong Shan’s entire body from the inside.

It hurt, excruciatingly so. Unlike the pain he usually suffered on his exterior, this time it was from the interior. Zhong Shan’s body shortly filled with fire energy. It only took one Blood Puti to turn his entire body into a furnace; his skin had turned reddish.

Sweat poured down his face. Yet, Zhong Shan knew this was a rare chance for him. He began to practice the Dayang Shengong frantically and Zhenqi circulated inside his body over and over.

Zhong Shan realized now that he had been careless in taking Tianling-er’s word at face value. She was slightly scatterbrained and didn’t know the whole picture. This Blood Puti was simply too powerful. It was so powerful that any other person who had reached the third stage of Xiantian would be burned to death immediately by its fire energy.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he had practiced the Demonic Body Toning Method which had toughened up his internal organs, his body would have exploded from the force by now. Even though he could withstand it, Zhong Shan still felt like his body was going to burst at any moment.

Demonic Body Toning Method!

Zhong Shan used the Demonic Body Toning Method and tried with all his might to complete his breakthrough within two hours. Otherwise, if he could no longer control the energy, he would be overpowered by Puti energy.

Blue veins stood up over Zhong Shan’s body and his muscles suddenly bulged out. Tianling-er watched the changes on Zhong Shan’s body in amazement, yet she was clueless as to what was happening. She just felt that Zhong Shan was very stressed and grabbed a towel planning to wipe the sweat off his head. Then she stopped herself from doing that because she was afraid that it would disturb his concentration.

Zhong Shan was trying with all of his power to achieve a breakthrough. Zhenqi was continuously revolving inside of him. This was a life-and-death moment for Zhong Shan. He clearly knew that if he couldn’t refine the energy from the Blood Puti within the two hours then he was as good as dead.

He persisted. Finally, a short time before the two hours was up, he made the breakthrough.

The fourth level of Xiantian. He had reached the fourth level of Xiantian.

Zhong Shan was relieved once he had his  breakthrough, but he still worked at it for a while longer to solidify it.

Not too long after, Zhong Shan’s body was wracked by intense pain, the aftereffect of the Demonic Body Toning Method! However, he was safe now. Though his Zhenqi was now only about thirty percent of a person at the fourth level should have, he wasn’t worried. He was confident that after a day or two, he would be good as new.

He slowly opened his eyes.

“Zhong Shan, how was it? The energy was powerful right?” Tianling-er immediately asked.

Zhong Shan opened his mouth in an attempt to say something but what came out was a sigh; it was so powerful that he almost didn’t survive it.

“En. I’m at fourth level of Xiantian now. Now it’s your turn. But you better take it one by one since I feel that the energy is too strong.” Zhong Shan nodded.

“The fourth level?” Tianling-er’s eyes brightened up and was pleasantly surprised as if it was her who had made the breakthrough.

“Wait for me.” Tianling-er immediately said.

Tianling-er swiftly picked eight Blood Puti and their respective vines quickly withered right after.

As Zhong Shan had requested, Tianling-er slowly put the Blood Puti into her mouth one by one.

What amazed Zhong Shan was that after the eighth one, Tianling-er still asked for more. “It’s not enough. Zhong Shan, give me one more.”

Zhong Shan picked two more Blood Puti for her. Afterwards, Tianling-er closed her eyes and started to work on her breakthrough.

Ten, ten Blood Puti?

Seeing the difference between him and Tianling-er, Zhong Shan realized the huge gap between Zhenqi and genuine energy. Besides, he had heard that Tianling-er had reached the ninth level of Xiantian more than half year ago!

Zhong Shan sat next to her and waited patiently. He could see her skin was also turning slightly red which made her white skin take on a slight sheen.

Zhong Shan didn’t bother to explore the deep end of the cave since it was not the time to explore. He waited for Tianling-er with patience.

The time Tianling-er needed to reach her breakthrough was much longer.

It took her one day and one night.

When she opened her eyes, her eyes were in the shape of a crescent.

“Zhong Shan, I am at the tenth level, the tenth level of Xiantian.” Tianling-er jumped up and held Zhong Shan’s sleeve bouncing about with excitement.

Zhong Shan smiled when he noticed that she could now jump with abandon, which meant that the wound on her leg was all healed. It healed itself as she was making her breakthrough.

“Good, good.” Zhong Shan could only nod as she shook him.

“Zhong Shan, let’s go inside the cave. We might find some other good things inside the cave.” Tianling-er said with twinkling eyes.

“Let’s wait here for one more day.” Zhong Shan responded.

“One more day?” Tianling-er puzzled.

“Yeah, let’s rest for one more day before we go in. Besides, are you going to go in like this? Find a place to change your clothes.” Zhong Shan said to Tianling-er.

Tianling-er looked at herself and she seemed to suddenly care a lot about how she looked in Zhong Shan’s eyes.

“Really? Then you go out, don’t look. I’ll go change.” Tianling-er called out.

Zhong Shan shook his head and walked out. Wait for one more day? It wasn’t just because of Tianling-er’s image, the aftereffects of the Demonic Body Toning Method hadn’t fully disappeared yet. He had to wait.

Soon, a well groomed Tianling-er, wearing all red, stood in front of Zhong Shan.

[1]:  離火: pinyin is “li huo.”  We presume li here is meant as one of the eight trigrams (symbolizing fire) and huo just means fire.  Rather than call it Fire Fire, we’ll leave it as Lihuo.